Whisks and Wooden Spoons

So!  I know it’s been much too long.  (As per usual.)  But I have actually been posting regularly on my new blog!  Over at Whisks and Wooden Spoons, you’ll find much the same as here (in fact, I’m hoping here will soon all be transferred over to there).

I really hope you’ll check out the new blog, subscribe to the emails, and follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram for updates!

Thanks to everyone for following this sweet, humble little blog.  Hopefully on to a better, still sweet and humble, thing!

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake with Haskap Buttercream

So.  Again.  It’s been much too long.  I feel like that’s the song I always sing.  But, life gets ahead of you.  Plans change.  Seasons change.  And before you know it, almost a year has gone by since you’ve done a single, solitary blog post!

How can this be?!

I’ve been doing some thinking in my brain (it’s really hard to make sense of what goes on there sometimes).  I’m thinking about evolving the blog a bit, which is why it has gone untouched for awhile.

Also, my dinosaur of a laptop died.  😦  Wahhhhh.  A new one will hopefully be on the list of purchases for the next few months.

Let’s get down to business.

There is good reason for this post today.  The cake – immaculate.  It looks soooo good.  It tastes even better!

I couldn’t let another recipe go by, unposted.  Especially this one.  Cake is kind of pound-cakey.  With a hint of lemon and lots of little poppy seeds, making for wonderful crunch.  The frosting!  It is smooth and sweet (like super sweet), with a haskap berry tang.

I guess I should touch on haskap berries!  They’re high in anthocyanins, vitamin C, phenolic compounds and other antioxidants.  To me, it sounds like blueberries on steroids.  They’re a bit more sour than blueberries, and but are slightly more mellow.  Not sure if that makes sense…  My hubby says that they taste like a mix of blueberries and kiwi.  (But he’s weird, so who knows what they taste like to normal people!)

There’s a company in our area called Haskapa.  I used the jam that they sell in the buttercream.  🙂

There’s your lesson pour la jour.

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

This recipe has been adapted from a recipe by Oh Honey Bakes .

• 1 cup, plus 2 tbsp butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 3 tbsp poppy seeds
• 1½ c buttermilk, or 1 1/4 cup milk with 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans.

Beat the butter and sugar together until they’re nice and fluffy (and yummy).  Add the eggs, two at a time, and beat well.  Add vanilla and lemon juice.

Mix together dry ingredients.  Alternate buttermilk and flour mixture, and mix until batter is light and soft-looking.

It’s really as easy as that!

Bake for 20 minutes, and then check every 3 minutes for up to 12.

Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes, and then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

Haskap Buttercream Icing

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2-3 heaping tbsp haskap jam (depending on preference – I used 3)
• 2 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 cups icing sugar

Beat butter until creamy.  Add in jam and vanilla.  (You can always add more jam in later, if you want more yummmmmy taste.)

Alternate icing sugar and milk, until you have a nice, rich buttercream.  If it seems to runny, add more icing sugar. If it’s too thick, add some more milk.  Again.  Super easy.

Frost cake as you wish!  (With ALL the icing!)  Or leave some in the bowl to eat as a snack.  You will need a glass of milk.

Enjoy!

 

To the kids!  I couldn’t post after almost a year and not include some kids pictures, so here they be!

Jude – The Easter Egg Fiend

 

Cael – enjoying a nice sunny day. (Which are few and far between.)

Briar. Growing up so much!

Feels like Fall

It DOES feel like fall.  And much too soon, in my opinion.  I’ve switched from shorts, a tank, and sandals to socks, sweaters, and leggings in a week.  From iced coffee to hot vanilla nut tea and hot chocolate.  (Not that it’s bad, just different, and MUCH too soon.)  I digress…

My counter.  Technically, it’s the desk my wonderful father made for me in elementary school, that I absolutely love.  But right now, it’s serving some time as a kitchen counter.  I was looking at it this evening after I put cinnamon rolls in the oven, and came to the conclusion that it’s a lot like my life.

Look at the organized clutter, the spattering of flour and cinnamon, the balancing of the laptop.  It’s got character, dents,scrapes, and doodles.  Lots of love oozes out of it when I think of the time and love my daddy poured into it as he made it.  (It’s got to be my favourite Christmas present ever.  Seconded by the hope chest he made me a few years later.)  My life is like my desk.  Organized, but in a messy, ‘only-I-know-where-everything-is-but-it-REALLY-is-organized’, kind of way.  Cluttered like my brain, jumping and crashing from one thought to the next.  Spattered like the laughter, screams, squeals, and tears of my family, throughout every day.  My life has had its share of dents and scrapes.  Doodles are the fun, quirky times.  So much love has been shoved into my life, and so much love squeezes out of me.  It’s give and take kind-o-deal.

There you go.  My life in a desk.  Didn’t think you’d ever come across that comparison now, did you?

On the other hand…

I may or may not need more counter space.  Either way, I had just enough room, in this cluttered mess, to make Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls.  I’m not going to share the recipe, I’ll just send you over to Piping Dreams for that.  But I did just want to say hey, and share a few photos.  Sorry (yet again) for being disconnected the past year.  Spring was crazy.  I thought, ‘Surely I’ll have some down time in the summer!’.  I was wrong.  Now that summer has flown by, and fall is at my heels, I’m thinking, ‘I must MAKE time through the fall and winter months!’.  Will it happen?  Only time will tell.

But for now, I leave you with cinnamon and clove scents wafting through my kitchen into yours.  As Lauren says in her post, these only take 30 minutes TOPS to whip up.  You can have your house smelling like mine in no time.  Or you can come over for coffee right now… or in the morning.  Whichever.

My hubby couldn’t wait for me to even get pictures, before he tried snatching a cinnamon roll.  What I didn’t tell him was that they were whole wheat.  Will he notice?  I haven’t heard any comments yet.  I’ll let you know.  (Sneaky wife here, trying to get him to eat healthier…  Do cinnamon rolls count as healthier?  Imma say yes.  Why not?)

If you really aren’t into whole wheat, check out these bad boys:  Nanny’s Cinnamon Rolls.  Yummmm!

Or these:  Apple Jelly Tea Rolls.  So good.  Soooo fall-ish.

Pictures of the kiddos you say?  Why, sure!

{Hats all around.  Cael wearing his uncle’s fedora, and Jude’s new hat knit by a great friend of the family}

I have a hat fetish.  There are so many awesome hats that look absolutely adorable on little boys…  *sigh.

Veg Egg Casserole

Can I just say that I really wish I had time and money to dress up, cook fancy meals, bake fancy desserts, decorate, and just entertain all the time?  Because I really wish it were possible.  Looking at some of the wonderful bakers on some blogs, and on television…  *sigh.

But my life consists more of being tired, broke, diapers, baby talk, and dealing with the public.  Not quite as glamourous.  But I wouldn’t change it for the world.  Mind, I will continue dreaming of being able to do those things mentioned first.  But I will enjoy what I’m doing now.  It’s special.  Being a wife, mom, daughter (in-law), sister (in-law), friend, and employee.  I enjoy all the roles [most of the time].  And when I don’t, I really know that I should.

Okay, now that I have that confession out there…  Let’s get cooking.

Oh, but first, a Cael interlude…  He’s just too cute to pass up, ain’t?

{All smiles… and maybe *slightly stunned…  *See next photo…}

{Great hair, eh?}

I made this dish a few weeks ago, because I was craving another dish.  You see, my mom makes this great corn egg casserole dish.  Normally for holidays.  And it’s awesome.  But I had no recipe.  I had an idea of what to use, but I wanted to add some green veggies to it, just to sneak them into the meal.  Just a warning though, we ate it before I remembered to get a picture of it cooked.  So…  that’s why the only pictures are before it was baked.

Veg Egg Casserole

1 cup broccoli, chopped

1 cup frozen corn

1/2 cup evaporated milk

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

4 eggs

Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease a 9×9 pan.

Throw the corn and broccoli in the pan.

In a bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients.

Pour over veggies.

Bake until middle is set (about 15-20 minutes).

Now, this is a bit different type meal…  But don’t  you dare hate on it, until you try it.  It’s pretty darn good.  Cael loved it, and hubby had seconds!

30 Day Challenge

Day 9 – How you hope your future will be.

Another hard question.

Joyful.  I hope that I will be joyful, if not always happy.

I hope that there are a few more kiddies running around, and that I learn to have more patience.

More on the material side…  I’d love to see a new house in the future, with a huge, amazing kitchen.

These are just a select few that happened to come to mind right off the cuff.  Of course there are many more thing I’d love to see in my future…  but here is a glance inside my brain.

Have a great day!  Talk soon!

 

Well hello there…

I guess I’ll welcome myself to the world of blogging.

Hopefully this’ll be an interesting place for people to find good recipes, and words of encouragement & faith.

If anyone has any suggestions, etc, please feel free to let me know.  I’m completely green at this.

Talk to you all soon!